Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Revell's item no. 01265, the Big Boy steam locomotive comes in a soft box. The box itself is very nicely designed. Inside it you will find the 87 parts that need to be put together. They are made of good quality black plastic and they are grouped into 4 units: The main part of the locomotive and the main part of the tender are separated from other components, while all the other parts are in a plastic frame from which they need to be removed.

Inside the box there is also an instruction manual and a safety advice document. Everything in the manual is translated into several (many) languages. It contains general assembly instructions and warnings, information about the required paint colors and 41 very detailed drawings that will guide you through the steps of assembling the Big Boy locomotive. One thing that I was not happy about is that on the outside of the box only 5 colors are listed as required paints (8, 9, 91, 99, 330), but the instruction manual lets you know that you will also need colors 75, 86 and 92.

Otherwise the contents of the box is more than satisfactory. It contains everything a modeler would expect, except the accessories, of course: paint, brushes and glue.

Monday, December 28, 2009

This year Santa really outdid himself. Well, to be precise, it was actually Rudy, the red nosed reindeer, not Santa ;) Anyway, among the lots of very nice presents under the Christmas tree, I was happy to find a model steam locomotive: Revell's item no. 02165, the Big Boy locomotive.Revell is one of the leading companies in modeling and among planes, ships, submarines, cars, engines and other models, it has some really nice steam locomotives. Revell's item no. 02165 is the American Big Boy locomotive on H0 scale (1:87).

Union Pacific's Big Boys were some of the largest, longest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. They were capable of pulling over 4000 tons of weight up on steep mountain grades and they were also quite stable at the speed of 130 km/h. Because of their enormous size, the Big Boys were articulated steam locomotives with 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (no other steamers had this wheel arrangement). They were very reliable and safe. 25 of them have been built between 1941 and 1944, grouped into two classes: class 1 with locomotives X4000 - X4019 and class 2 with locomotives X4020 - X4024.

Assembling Revell's Big Boy requires much time and patience. Rated at difficulty level 3 (out of 5), it is made up of 87 pieces which need to be painted in several colors and glued together. Rudy took care of everything and also brought me the 5 basic paints, two brushes and glue required for assembling the model. Thanks, Rudy!

Friday, December 25, 2009

Yepp, I became one year older the other day. Among many other very nice gifts that I have received for this occasion, there is one that I particularly enjoy. Someone dear remembered my hobby and gave me a ceramic steam locomotive. Actually it's Santa's locomotive and yes, he is a proud driver looking out the window. The little loco is painted in dark red, white and gold and has a nice ribbon on the front of the boiler. After all, it's Christmas ;)

CFR 077 is part of a batch of 42 locomotives designed and delivered to CFR by the A.G. Maffei and Hanomag (Hannoversche Machinenbau AG) factories between 1911 and 1915. 40 Ct-n2 locomotives of this type were delivered between 1914 and 1915. These locos were used to pull passenger, freight and mixed trains on short secondary lines. They were retired from service after 1968. CFR 077 was retired at Ploiesti in 1971 and transfered to the museum in Bucuresti.

Friday, December 18, 2009

In 1949 CFR ordered 10 narrow gauge (760 mm) locomotives from the Chrzanów factories in Poland. These locomotives had separate tenders and they were destined to be used at the Satu Mare Complex. Their were numbered from 765.050 to 765.059. The so called "Duna" (means Danube in Hungarian) type locomotives (the successful Px 48 Polish series) proved to be very efficient in Romania. Some of them have been used for tourist trains in the last few years on the Turda-Abrud line, before the line was closed.

Unfortunately only the tender is displayed in the Sibiu steam locomotive museum, the locomotive itself sits on a platform for many years, waiting to be put next to the tender. You can see some photos of the locomotive here:

The locomotives of type Prussian T 16 (later called DR 94) were designed by the Prussian Royal Railways to pull trains on the curvy lines of Turingia. They were tender locomotives with 5 coupled axles. CFR 94.649 (originally named Magdeburg 8110) is part of a batch of 15 locomotives of this type that became property of CFR after World War II. They were captured by Russian troupes in 1949 in Austria and given to Romania as war compensation later. Al tough they were modern steam locomotives, they were assigned to industrial units because of the big weight on axles.

Shortly after their arrival into CFR's park of locomotives, 6 of them were scrapped in 1952. The rest of them were retired and scrapped between 1971 and 1972, except one, the CFR 94.649, which worked in marshalling operations at Grivita until 1988. It was transfered to the Sibiu steam locomotive museum in 1994 and it's exhibited there ever since.

Facts:

ID: CFR 94.649

Wheel arrangement: 0-10-0T

Built: 1914

Builder: BMAG - Schwartzkopff (Berlin)

Top speed: 65 km/h

Gauge: Standard (1435 mm)

Location: Sibiu, Romania (steam locomotive museum)

Obviously not used anymore, the locomotive is exhibited in a nice place at the steam locomotive museum in Sibiu, Romania. It is the sole survivor of its type among CFR's locomotives.

The second room hosts a big miniature railway, with beautiful models recreated with amazing precision. The little trains travel along the track on several lines, going in and coming out of several tunnels, stopping at stations. The star is the newly launched EA 60 locomotive, but the DAs are also very nice, they even have lights.